Sometimes Discipline A Synonym For Assault

RAY RECCHI

His voice on the telephone quavered with righteous anger. He was a devout Christian, he said, and his cup runneth over with outrage.

Searching for a way to strike back at his tormentors, he remembered that we had gone to junior high school together and thought a column about his plight would help.

Although it had been more than 25 years since we had spoken, I remembered him. At the age of 13, he had been a strikingly handsome young man who shaved every morning and could have easily passed for 24.

From what I remembered of him, I assumed he must have come to religion later in life.

In a speech laced with Scripture, he told me that his children had been taken from him. Railing at the fact that a good Christian family should suffer such injustice when there were so many real perverts running loose, he explained that a social services representative, alerted by a meddling teacher, had placed his two children in foster care pending an investigation of possible child abuse.

At first, I tried to placate him by explaining that, where the welfare of children is concerned, such measures are often necessary. Sometimes innocent adults must suffer such indignity, I said, to ensure the safety of innocent children.

SOMETIMES, MEDDLING IS A VIRTUE

The longer he talked, however, the more I began to suspect he might not be all that innocent.

``I live my life and raise my children according to the Bible,`` he said. ``The Bible says `Spare the rod and spoil the child.```

Having spotted ``a few small bruises`` on one of his sons several days earlier, the boy`s teacher had called authorities, who had taken the children.

When I said it sounded as if they had good reason, he tried to explain that the child had needed discipline and that the government had no right to tell him how to discipline his children. Certainly, it had no right to take the children from him and treat him like a criminal. In Russia perhaps, but not in America. I should write about that, he said.

Of course, I didn`t write about that. As far as I`m concerned, governments -- and indeed each of us as individuals -- not only have the right but also the responsibility to intervene when adults try to deodorize sadism by calling it discipline.

If anything, we are too concerned with the rights of parents as opposed to the rights of children.

Why is it, for example, that when a man punches a neighbor who is his own size or larger, it is called ``assault`` but when he punches his own helpless child it is called ``discipline?``

SPARE THE ROD, SPOIL THE ABUSER

And why is it that a man can maul a 6-year-old child, leaving her unconscious on a bathroom floor for 12 hours, and be found guilty of manslaughter rather than murder when that child dies?

According to the New York jury that heard the case of Joel Steinberg, the difference was that he had not shown ``depraved indifference to human life`` when killing his illegally adopted daughter, Lisa.

The distinction was made despite the fact that according to all reports, the man had been beating the child for most of her life. What`s more, when police finally arrived to help the comatose child, they also found a 16-month-old baby tied to a crib, drinking spoiled milk.

Under the circumstances, I can`t think of a better way to describe Joel Steinberg than ``depraved and indifferent to human life.``

According to jurors, however, the verdict was a compromise between those in favor of murder charges and those more inclined to go with a lesser charge. But in a society that is truly concerned with the welfare of its children, there should be no compromise, no circumstances or semantics sufficient to mitigate such acts.

The maximum sentence Steinberg can get for his crime is 8 to 25 years. Like nearly every other punishment meted out to child abusers that I`ve ever heard about, it is not nearly enough.

In response to the verdict, Dr. Vincent Fontana, chairman of the Mayor`s Task Force on Child Abuse, said, ``It`s a sad day for the kids who are being abused in this country.``

Tragically, until we become more concerned with children`s rights than parents` rights, every day will be a sad day for those children.